Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of tracking cells in vivo, and in particular, relates to a method of tracking specific cells in vivo using fluorescent nanoparticles.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a variety of imaging methods have been developed for biological and medical applications. Especially, molecular imaging has been widely used to trace specific cells as a diagnosis tool for tumor cells treatments. There are many studies related to the application of fluorescent nanoparticles with luminescent properties to fluorescence imaging. In vivo small animal imaging, allows fluorescent images from fluorescent particles to be observed by a high-sensitivity camera; however, applications are limited as penetration of photons in tissue in vivo are often inadequate. Fluorescent particles that emit the near-infrared region (NIR) with high penetration are used for enhancement. Currently, small molecules of indocarbocyanine dyes are mainly used.
As the applications of fluorescent probes and fluorescent reporters become wider, fluorescent imaging has become an important analysis tool between basal and clinical researches. Although traditional small molecule near-infrared region (NIR) dyes are still used, development of fluorescent organic nanoparticles, fluorescent biological nanoparticles, and fluorescent inorganic nanoparticles for in vivo fluorescent imaging allow for the development of many powerful new tools for biological medical applications. Nanoparticles, as a platform, can be built up with multi-functional probes to be applied in multimodality imaging.
In view of this, a novel imaging method which can be combined with high-resolution and long life cycle fluorescent imaging, molecular targeting techniques, and X-ray imaging to function as a biomedical diagnosis tool is needed.